Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, on Monday met with the leadership of organised labour over the controversy surrounding the proposed changes to the administration of King’s College, Lagos, and assured workers that the Federal Government would address their concerns through dialogue and protect their jobs. The meeting, which was attended by the Trade Union Congress, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria and other affiliated unions, also had the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, and the acting Permanent Secretary, Dr. Folake Olatunji-Davies, in attendance. The engagement followed weeks of tension over the proposed concession of the 117-year-old institution to its alumni association, which the unions said had generated uncertainty over the future of the school and its employees. Speaking during the meeting, Alausa said the engagement was part of the Federal Government’s broader education reforms under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, stressing that the welfare of workers must be balanced with the national interest and the future of Nigerian children. The minister said while workers’ welfare remained important, all stakeholders must also consider the national interest and the future of the nation’s children. He commended the unions for their commitment to workers’ rights and their willingness to resolve the disagreement through dialogue, assuring them that the government would implement its reforms responsibly. Alausa also praised the acting Permanent Secretary for returning from a scheduled official trip to London to respond to the concerns raised by the unions. According to him, the government would take into consideration the interests of learners, teachers and non-academic staff while ensuring effective management of public resources.
On her part, the acting Permanent Secretary assured the unions that the government was committed to a smooth transition and would protect the interests of affected workers. She clarified that the workers would remain civil servants and would have the option of either remaining at King’s College under the new administrative arrangement or transferring to other schools within Lagos State, depending on their preference. She said a committee would be constituted to facilitate the transition, ensure that relevant stakeholders were carried along and preserve the heritage and objectives of King’s College. The TUC General Secretary, Nuhu Toro, said the unions were primarily seeking clarification on the proposed changes, particularly the meaning and implications of the term “concessioning.” Toro said the controversy had led to an instruction for workers in unity schools and King’s College to down tools, but noted that interventions at the highest level had brought the parties to the negotiating table. He said the unions were committed to resolving the matter through dialogue, particularly because of the impact of any disruption on children from poor and less-privileged families. Toro said the parties were on the same page on the future of Nigerian children, stressing the need for them to reach an agreement quickly. The meeting was still ongoing as of the time of filing the report, with the ministry reiterating that legitimate concerns raised by the unions would be addressed within the framework of the law and the government’s education reforms.
The dispute has been building for weeks. It stems from the Federal Executive Council’s approval of a 35-year concession of King’s College to the King’s College Old Boys’ Association under a public-private partnership arrangement. The minister has repeatedly insisted that the concession is not a sale of the school. According to Alausa, under the agreement, KCOBA is responsible for financing, rehabilitating, modernising, operating and maintaining the 117-year-old institution, while the Federal Government retains legal title to the school as well as its statutory regulatory, monitoring, inspection and enforcement powers. He said the arrangement was developed under the established PPP framework and subjected to technical, economic, financial, legal, environmental and social assessments, as well as value-for-money and fiscal-impact assessments, before securing the necessary regulatory and Federal Executive Council approvals. He added that the agreement expressly protects the public character and national identity of the college and does not transfer ownership or create a proprietary interest in favour of KCOBA. The minister also said admissions would continue to comply with applicable unity-college policies, including merit, transparency, fairness and national representation. He said the junior secondary school one admission would continue through testing and assessment, with the national common entrance examination remaining central to the prescribed entry framework. Alausa noted that the agreement does not provide for an automatic increase in school fees, although it does not establish a permanent fee freeze. He said the agreement also contains a staff transition and protection framework to facilitate an orderly transition while protecting staff welfare and ensuring continuity of essential school services. According to him, existing employment obligations, liabilities, arrears, pensions, gratuities and other staff-related entitlements arising before the transition remain the responsibility of the federal government unless expressly assumed by KCOBA. He said KCOBA would assume responsibility for relevant operating expenditure, including salaries, benefits and allowances for personnel engaged under the project after the transition.
The unions, however, have remained unconvinced. The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria directed workers in federal unity colleges across the country not to resume academic activities until further notice over the concession. The directive was contained in a communique dated September 10 and signed by the association’s zonal coordinators. The association attributed its decision to what it called the unilateral decision of the minister to cede King’s College to the school’s old students association without involving other stakeholders. The ASCSN described the proposed concession of the school as an assault and an affront on the unity of Nigeria. In the communique, the association said the ceding or sale of the federal unity colleges would negate the principle on which they were established to be a centre of secondary education where Nigerian children from all backgrounds would interact and imbibe the culture of tolerance of one another and build national cohesion. It warned that if the schools were concessioned or sold, they would become inaccessible to millions of children from low-income backgrounds and become a commodity for the rich. The association also said thousands of workers in the colleges could lose their jobs under the proposed arrangement. It demanded that the minister should forthwith stop the idea of concession or sale of King’s College and the Federal Unity Colleges in the country to private investors.
The unions later gave the Federal Government two conditions to end the nationwide shutdown. The ASCSN and the Joint Congress of Unions of the Federal Ministry of Education said the government must immediately halt the controversial King’s College concession process and issue an official invitation to the unions for a transparent, round-table dialogue. Until those terms were met, the unions directed all workers nationwide to ignore the resumption orders issued by the minister. Labelling their boycott as total, absolute and unchanged, labour leaders urged parents, guardians and the public to disregard government directives forcing schools to reopen. In a statement issued on Sunday, September 13, the ASCSN Unit Chairman for King’s College, Mr. Samuel Enang, warned that the industrial action was a defensive step to protect public education. The union urged its members to stand firm against administrative intimidation, official roll calls or threats of sanctions from ministry management. Enang said the strike was not merely an industrial dispute over welfare but a patriotic battle to save public education. He warned that if the government succeeded with King’s College, every other Federal Government College in Nigeria would be sold to private interests. While apologising to parents and guardians for the sudden academic disruption, the unions maintained that the gates of all 115 unity colleges would remain firmly locked until the Federal Government halted the concession and opened a formal channel for dialogue.
The situation was further complicated by a disagreement over the venue of Monday’s meeting. The meeting, scheduled for Monday, was initially cancelled after Alausa reportedly insisted that it should hold at the headquarters of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, while the Joint Workers Committee of Unions demanded that the minister meet them at their workplace, the Federal Ministry of Education headquarters in Abuja. A top official of the Joint Workers Committee of Union, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the minister wanted the meeting to be held at TETFund on the grounds that he would not be safe if it were held at the ministry. However, the workers insisted that the Ministry of Education should be the venue because it was their workplace. The workers had earlier barricaded the entrance to the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, preventing officials and other workers from accessing the premises. The development came as the Federal Ministry of Education and Federal Government Unity Colleges remained shut countrywide. There was no academic activity in any of the Federal Government Unity Colleges across the country on Monday, as the schools remained shut in compliance with the workers’ directive. Teachers and other workers in several unity colleges barricaded their school entrances, effectively frustrating the commencement of the first term. The shutdown came despite the Federal Government’s earlier directive for the schools to resume, with the unions insisting that there would be no resumption until their grievances, particularly the proposed concession of King’s College, were addressed. Parents and staff at King’s College, Lagos, also held a peaceful protest against the Federal Government’s plan to hand over the college to the alumni association. The protesters argued that transferring public schools to private entities could undermine their accessibility, affordability and role in promoting national unity. A trade union leader in the ministry, Comrade Gali Habib, said workers were protesting in solidarity and to protect Federal Unity Colleges from policies that could undermine their public ownership and national-integration objectives. He described the colleges as institutions where children from less-privileged families accessed quality secondary education at subsidised rates.
The meeting on Monday was a significant step toward resolving the impasse. The minister’s assurance that workers would remain civil servants and would have the option of remaining at King’s College or transferring to other schools within Lagos State addressed one of the unions’ core concerns. The acting Permanent Secretary’s clarification that a committee would be constituted to facilitate the transition and ensure that relevant stakeholders were carried along also provided a framework for engagement. The TUC General Secretary’s statement that the parties were on the same page on the future of Nigerian children suggested a willingness to find common ground. However, the unions have not yet called off the strike. The nationwide shutdown of unity colleges continues, and the two conditions laid out by the unions have not been fully met. The government has not halted the concession process, and while the meeting itself constituted a form of dialogue, the unions have demanded a formal invitation for a transparent, round-table discussion. The coming days will determine whether the engagement leads to a resolution or whether the industrial action escalates further. For now, the government has made its position clear: King’s College has not been sold, the Federal Government retains ownership, and workers’ jobs are protected. The unions have made their position clear: they oppose the concession, they want proper consultation, and they will keep the schools shut until their demands are addressed. The students and parents caught in the middle are waiting for both sides to reach an agreement. The meeting on Monday may have opened the door to that agreement. Whether it leads to a breakthrough or another deadlock remains to be seen.
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